Attendance Overview                              

The Programme keeps the overall academic, attendance and personal records of all students. We are responsible for notifying education funding organisations of any changes to your studies (including absences for long periods of time) and to keep records of your attendance in line with GMC requirements. Additionally, as a sponsor of Student Visas for overseas students, the University needs to meet the UK Visa and Immigration Service (UKVI) statutory requirements and its responsibilities regarding monitoring student attendance. Students must therefore make every attempt to attend all of their programmed activities.

You are required to attend the Programme full-time during the semester dates, published each year on 1Med, as well as for any published assessment periods/dates and resit exam periods if required. You are expected to take full advantage of all available teaching and learning opportunities; you must be prepared for changes to your published timetable. We expect you to attend all timetabled sessions (and stay for the entire session). You should also be prepared to attend meetings with members of staff when required, sometimes at short notice. As such it is important to keep the University up to date with your contact details, and to check your University timetable and email account daily.

You must therefore make every attempt to attend all learning activities and should inform the Programme of any circumstances or disabilities that could affect your ability to complete any component of the Programme. Absence without valid reason (such as documented illness) will be considered unprofessional and may result in disciplinary action.

 

Attendance Expectations

The Programme expects students to attend all timetabled sessions. We also expect that students will be available to be on campus and at their clinical visits during published semester dates.

The Programme recognises that 100% attendance is not always possible and has placed an absolute minimum attendance of 80% in the GEM Year and MBChB Years 1 and 2, plus a minimum number of satisfactory clinical placements in Year 3, Year 4 and Year 5. Therefore, your attendance at all mandatory teaching sessions is carefully monitored. Please note: It is unacceptable and unprofessional to work only to the minimum attendance rate.

Both full attendance and punctuality are core professional skills of a doctor. Persistent lateness can reflect an underlying unprofessional attitude and can impede your progress on the MBChB Programme and/or may result in disciplinary action.

If your attendance rate falls below 80% in the GEM year or MBChB Years 1 and 2, or you fail too many clinical placement blocks in Year 3, Year 4 or Year 5, regardless of the reason, you will be given formal notice of your discontinuation from the Programme for the rest of the academic year. Further information on this process is described later.

Specific to Years 3-5

For students entering Years 3-5, unlike in Years 1 and 2, Wednesday afternoons are not kept free, and you may be expected to be on placement or at teaching between the hours of 8am-8pm Monday to Friday, and potentially at weekends, according to your shift rota.

Attendance is one of the factors taken into account by Clinical Placement Supervisors (CPSs) as part of the placement sign-off process and poor attendance could result in an unsatisfactory placement sign-off. With this in mind, missing sessions for up to 1 week due to ill health may not necessarily guarantee an unsatisfactory placement sign-off, as long as the CPS judges other factors such as engagement and completion of specific learning outcomes for the block to be satisfactory.

Students’ electronic logbook is where attendance data is captured and is visible to both the student and CPS. It is the responsibility of each student to keep this logbook up to date.

How attendance is captured/recorded

Given the varying nature of teaching and placement activity, your attendance may be captured in a variety of ways. Some examples are below:

• Registers in class that tutors or administrative staff complete.
• QR or numerical codes displayed during sessions that students need to enter into an app.
• Student self-completion on eForms.

In the GEM Year and MBChB Year 1 and 2 attendance is recorded via SEAtS. More information about SEAtS and support with using the system can be found here: https://www.studentsupport.manchester.ac.uk/study-support/seats/

In Years 3, 4 and 5 attendance is recorded in 1Med.

Unexpected absence                                     

An unexpected absence may be related to ill health, bereavement, or other extenuating circumstance, and is therefore unplanned.

How to report an unexpected absence

If you are unable to attend a session, you are required to complete an absence form. This should be done as soon as possible.

In the GEM Year and MBChB Year 1 and 2 absences are recorded via the SEAtS app. Click ‘here’ for how to create an absence in SEAtS.

 If you are in Year 3, 4 or 5 can access the absence forms through your timetable profile page on 1Med.

When you are marked absent from a session, if you haven’t already completed an absence form, you will see an alert on your profile prompting you to complete the form.

You should ensure you have selected all sessions you were absent for and give a brief but specific reason(s) for the absence(s). Once you have submitted the form it will be ‘locked’, and you will not be able to make any amendments. If you need to talk to a member of staff about this, please contact the Student Pastoral Support team. If you do not complete your absence forms, the Programme will contact you to follow up and a record of this will be placed on your student file.

If you are absent for more than one week (seven consecutive days, weekends included) due to illness, medical evidence may be requested. In accordance with GMC recommendations, the Programme does not accept GP certification where the GP is a relative of the student concerned.

Where to go for support for an unexpected absence

If you require support related to your absences, you should approach the Student Pastoral Support team in the first instance.

The School also operates a physical and digital Student Support Hub that you can reach out to.

Additional steps to take for an unexpected absence in GEM Year and MBChB Years 1 and 2   

Visits to hospital and community healthcare settings are a compulsory part of your learning in the GEM Year and MBChB Years 1 and 2. These activities have been organised in hospitals, the community and the University to help you prepare for Years 3 to 5 where you will be fully immersed in the clinical environment. As a medical student we expect you display the professional behaviour of a future doctor by attending every session. If your partner/peers are unable to attend placement with you, you must still attend.

If you are unable to attend a GP/community visit, you must contact, with as much notice as possible, both the GP practice and the Community Placements team who manage GP placements. GP contact details are included in your timetable on 1Med.

If you are unable to attend a hospital visit, you must contact the Early Clinical Experience (ECE) Hospital Facilitator and the Curriculum & Programmes Team, who manage hospital visits, with as much notice as possible.

Additional steps to take for an unexpected absence in Years 3, 4 and 5

Students must also inform both their Clinical Placement Supervisor and the Clinical Education Campus Administrator on the FIRST day of absence via their published reporting processes.

Clinical Placement Supervisor is required to keep a record of your attitude and attendance and to notify the Programme of any students whose engagement and attendance, or progress is giving cause for concern.

What happens if your absences persist 

It is the responsibility of all students to keep a record of their attendance. It is your responsibility to ensure your attendance remains in line with programme regulations, for each component, including all timetabled teaching sessions.

Your attendance will be monitored by the Programme. You will receive communication(s) from the Programme warning you if you reach particular numbers of absences. If your absences all occur within a short space of time, there may not be the opportunity to receive a warning. The Programme’s Student Pastoral Support Tutor will offer to meet with you. This gives you the opportunity to discuss anything preventing you from attending and to access further support.

If your attendance rate falls below 80% in the GEM Year, or MBChB Year 1 and Year 2, or you fail too many clinical placement blocks in Year 3, Year 4 or Year 5, regardless of the reason, you will be given formal notice of your discontinuation from the Programme for the rest of the academic year. This means that you will not be permitted to attend any further classes or assessments during the academic year. If you are taking the year for the first time, your case will be considered by the Student Progression Committee (SPC) who will decide your conditions for return in repeating the year in its entirety. If, however, you are repeating a year because of failure to comply with specified attendance requirements, or following interruption, then failure to meet the attendance requirements in their repeat year (in the absence of accepted mitigating circumstances) will result in exclusion from the Programme.

If you are discontinued/excluded because of attendance concerns, you have the right to submit an academic appeal against that decision within five working days of notification of the decision. Should you be successful in your appeal, you will be considered by the SPC to decide conditions for return.

As a student on a professional degree programme, we view absences without accepted mitigating circumstances as a potential professionalism concern. Therefore, repeated unauthorised absences and/or non-engagement with follow-up from the Programme team will also result in referral via the below stages:

• Stage 1: Referral to the Academic Year Lead (for GEM Year and MBChB Years 1-2), or the CEC Year Lead (Years 3-5). You will be reminded of the attendance requirements of the Programme and required to give an explanation and discuss support available to help you improve. At the meeting, a verbal warning may be issued, and this would be recorded on your file.                                                                           _
• Stage 2: Referral to the Concerns Review Panel. Failure to attend a scheduled meeting would be unprofessional and constitute a further area of concern that may be referred to the Fitness to Practice Committee.                                                                                                    _
• Stage 3: Referral to the School Fitness to Practise Committee.        _
• Stage 4: Referral to the Faculty Fitness to Practise Committee. which could result in more significant outcomes, including temporary suspension/discontinuation from the programme or exclusion from the programme entirely.

Reasons you could be marked absent                  

Late arrival to teaching (that is, to arrive at any time after the scheduled start time of the session) is recorded as non-attendance. For some classes late arrival means you could be prevented from entering the session, usually due to health and safety reasons. In exceptional circumstances, you may ask permission to leave the session early (permission granted at the discretion of the tutor) – the tutor might then mark you absent if they feel you are missing important session content.

If you attend a session inappropriately dressed (for example, attending a clinical placement without adhering to the dress code), you will be prevented from entering the session. This will be recorded as an absence.

Admittance to a session is at the facilitator’s discretion. If you encounter an issue you would like to discuss regarding this, please contact the Student Pastoral Support team.                                                        _

How to request an expected absence in advance

Hospital Appointments

If you have a hospital appointment that clashes with a session, and you are unable to reschedule the appointment, you will need to submit an absence form via SEAtS (Years 1, 2 and GEM) or your timetable profile page on 1Med (Years 3, 4 and 5).

Jury Service

If you receive a summons to carry out jury service, you must contact sms.hub@manchester.ac.uk as soon as possible. The Information, Advice & Guidance Team in the School will provide a letter which can be used to request postponement from undertaking jury service until your foundation training has been completed. However, it should be noted this cannot be guaranteed. Your Academic Year Lead will advise you about your studies to minimise any effect of a period of absence.

Religious Observance and Festivals

Please note you must ensure your attendance does not fall below the requirements for the MB ChB and that alternative arrangements may only be made for mandatory religious festivals if observance does not interfere with essential Programme requirements to ensure you are safe in your future practice as a doctor.

Regular Daily or Weekly Religious Observance

The Programme expects students to attend all components of the Programme and cannot normally accommodate changes to individual timetables to account for regular daily or weekly religious observance. This parallels your responsibilities when you become a doctor.

For students in Years 3-5, if you would like to discuss specific issues relating to regular daily or weekly religious observance, please contact your CEC Year Lead as early as possible before the start of the academic year. Please note that we cannot in any way guarantee that modifications can be made to your timetable.

Major Religious Festivals

We also recognise that there may be occasions when some students feel unable to attend due to the need to observe particular religious festivals. In this case you are asked, at the latest by the start of the academic year, to contact your Academic Year Lead (GEM Year and MBChB Years 1-2), or the CEC Year Lead (Years 3-5)  in writing of any date(s) when you intend to be absent from the University due to a requirement to observe mandatory religious holy day(s). We are aware that precise dates may not be available at the beginning of each academic year, but it is vital that you provide as much information as soon as possible and then confirm the exact date with the School at the earliest opportunity. These dates will be noted and kept as part of your student record. All absences will be recorded in the normal manner.

In Years 3, 4 and 5 only, it is less possible to make alternative arrangements for students who are unable to attend scheduled classes due to mandatory religious festivals and who have notified the Programme in the correct manner at the start of the academic year. Please be aware that we will support what we can, but it is not a given right.

Please also see: University of Manchester Policy on Religious Observance for Students

Conferences

Students in all years are permitted to attend conferences where they are presenting and have received relevant approval. Approval must be sought in advance via your Academic Year lead (GEM Year and MBChB Years 1-2) or CEC Year Lead or Hospital Dean (Years 3-5). Please note that approval is not guaranteed.                                                _

Attendance if you are considering interrupting your studies

If you are applying to interrupt your studies part-way through an academic year, you should ensure you follow the Programme regulations, including those concerning attendance, until your status on the Programme has been confirmed.

If you are considering interruption, it is expected that you will discuss this with Student Pastoral Support as soon as possible. We recommend that you also specifically discuss attendance at this stage, if your reasons for considering interruption are also impeding your ability to attend